The brother of Republican megadonor Harlan Crow must face trial over allegations of financing a 100-person sex trafficking ring, a judge in Texas has ruled – paving the way for a bombshell court case involving one of Texas’ richest families.
Trammell Crow, a 72-year-old property magnate and environmental philanthropist, is accused by two women of providing ‘essential financial assistance’ for the network.
The women, Julia Hubbard and Kayla Goedinghaus, claim that from 2010 onwards they were drugged by a group of doctors involved in the scheme, and then forced to perform sex acts.
They claim the ringleader of the group was Julia Hubbard’s then-husband, Richard Hubbard, who controlled her until 2018, she alleges. Goedinghaus was his fiancee, but escaped the group in 2020.
One of the women became ‘a virtual long-term sex slave’, the suit states, and another was also beaten and raped.
Crow, who earlier this year met the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, at his Austin ranch to discuss environmental issues, said through his lawyer that the case was ‘absurd and blatantly false’.
His brother Harlan Crow, 74, has been in the headlines himself for his decades-long friendship with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Trammell Crow is seen in September 2016 at the Global Green 20th Anniversary Environmental Awards in Los Angeles. Crow, now 72, has been accused of providing financial support for the sex trafficking ring. His lawyers call the case ‘absurd’
Crow is accused of financing the sex trafficking ring and turning a blind eye to the women’s pleas for help
Harlan Crow treated the justice to a series of lavish trips, including flights on his private jet, island-hopping on his yacht and vacations at his estate in the Adirondacks.
He also bought the justice’s mother’s home in Savannah, Georgia, and helped pay for the private school tuition fees for the justice’s great-nephew, whom he was raising.
The revelation about Harlan Crow’s largesse sparked soul-searching in the Supreme Court, and have led to stricter requirements for justices to declare their gifts.
The Crow family is among the most powerful in Texas.
Harlan Crow is the chairman and former CEO of Crow Holdings, a Texas-based family real estate firm with $29 billion in assets.
Harlan and Trammell Crow’s father, noted real estate developer Trammell Crow Sr, founded the company in 1948 and the Crow family name is found on buildings throughout Dallas.
Four of the six Crow siblings followed their legendary father into real estate: Harlan, Trammell, their brother Stuart and sister Lucy.
Trammell Crow was first accused by the women in a November 2022 lawsuit, filed in California. The case was transferred to Texas, where most of the defendants live.
Trammell Crow is seen at a Hamptons fundraiser for a wildlife charity in August 2021
Crow is pictured in August 2021 at the Nova’s Ark Project in the Hamptons
Crow’s team attempted to get the charges dismissed, arguing they were without merit.
But on Monday, US District Judge Fred Biery, sitting in San Antonio, ordered that the case proceed to trial.
John Balestriere, a lawyer for the women, told DailyMail.com that they were ‘extremely pleased’ with the ruling and looked forward to preparing for trial, including gathering evidence and deposing the defendants.
Balestriere noted that his firm represented plaintiffs who won in a sex trafficking jury trial in Brooklyn federal court last year, and added: ‘Our clients and we are prepared to go the distance.’
Crow’s lawyers told DailyMail.com that the ruling was ‘disappointing but not a surprise given the court at this early stage is prohibited from questioning the veracity’ of the claims.
‘We continue to dispute the allegations and believe the plaintiffs’ story paints a picture of numerous troubled and broken domestic relationships,’ they said.
‘The account of events linking our client to this story is absurd and blatantly false.
‘We’re certain the evidence will make that clear in future legal proceedings.’
The women say that Julia Hubbard met Trammell Crow when she was working as a waitress in a Dallas nightclub, and invited him to her modeling events.
Through Julia Hubbard, Crow was introduced to her then-husband, Richard.
Justice Clarence Thomas’s friendship with billionaire property developer Harlan Crow (right), the brother of Trammell Crow, has sparked questions about ethics on the Supreme Court
Harlan Crow, 74, has been in the spotlight this year for his friendship with Clarence Thomas
The nine Supreme Court justices bowed to public pressure and on November 13 published a code of conduct, even as they insisted they were already bound by ethics rules
Crow hosted sex parties at his Marble Falls home, the women claim, and refused to help them when they begged him for assistance.
‘Defendant Crow knew, or recklessly disregarded, that Plaintiffs would be forced to engage in commercial sex acts because as early as 2011, Plaintiff Hubbard informed Crow that she was being forced by the Venture to engage in commercial sex acts against
her will,’ the court filing states.
The women claim, in their case filings, that doctors, a Texas Ranger and others worked to keep the women drugged and run ‘an illegal racketeering enterprise’.
They claim that the Texas Ranger, Cody Mitchell, was used to threaten them with ‘arrests under false charges,’ and discourage them from seeking the help of law enforcement.
Mitchell sent the accused ringleader of the group, Richard Hubbard, a photograph of him in his police cruiser with a bottle of alcohol and his penis exposed, according to documents obtained by Dallas Express.
The photo was shown to the women as a threat, their lawyers claim.
They claim that a psychologist, Dr. Benjamin Todd Eller, was enlisted by Hubbard to falsely claimed that the women were ‘seriously psychiatrically troubled’ in order to secure heavy dose prescriptions of ‘Xanax, Adderall, Oxycodone, Marinol, Soma, Lorazepam, Ambien, and Trazadone.’
The women allege that Crow was involved at the very start of the trafficking ring in 2010, and knew ‘all the details of the force, fraud, threat, and coercion… and without him the venture never could have succeeded’.
The suit further claims the Texan billionaire hosted sex parties where the women were farmed out to his guests, and maintained what he called ‘lingerie rooms’ in his properties, ‘in which he kept a variety of lingerie for female guests to wear, as well as what he called ‘stripper shoes’.’
The women allege a conspiracy ‘to traffic women for purposes of sexual acts and forced labor, to the financial benefit of Defendant Hubbard, Defendant Eller, and the Medical Doctor Defendants and for the sexual gratification and benefits of all other Defendants.’